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Wednesday, 12 April 2017

POSSIBLE FRENCH ORIGIN OF THE CARDEN NAME

The cardoon flower. Photograph courtesy of Shihmei Barger
The cardoon (French: "cardon") is a thistle-like vegetable cultivated in the Geneva region. It tastes of artichoke and is popular especially during colder months baked in a gratin sauce (gratin de cardon).

POSSIBLE
FRENCH ORIGIN OF THE CARDEN NAME

Though it is clear that most Carden
branches have their origin in an ancient family which existed in Cheshire long
before the Norman invasion, the East Kent branches appear from DNA evidence to
have a separate origin. The late Joan
Carden of Spain speculated that they descended from a Cardon mentioned in the
Domesday Book.

Domesday
Book.

In about 1086 William the Conqueror
instructed that the ownership of all land in England be established and
recorded in what came to be known as the Domesday Book. This mentions William Cardon several times as
follows, in the Essex volume (Phillimore, London and Chichester, 1983, ISBN 0
85033 484 5):-

Page 10.
Hundred of Uttlesford. From this
manor William Cardon, a man of G(eoffrey) de Mandeville’s, wrongfully received
24 acres of woodland when Swein was Sheriff, as the Hundred testifies.

Page 20.
Hundred of Uttlesford. To this
manor was attached 1 Freeman with 3 virgates before 1066, whom William Cardon
holds for G(eoffrey) de Mandeville’s Holding.
He paid 2p per year.

Page 90.
(WILLIAM CARDON’S ANNEXATION). In
the Hundred of Uttlesford. William
Cardon appropriated 1 Freeman with 8 acres.
He belongs to (Great) Chishill, of Geoffrey de Mandeville’s
Holding. Value 2s.

Thus it appears that at the time of the
survey, 1086, William Cardon was working for Geoffrey de Mandeville, one of the
many followers of William given confiscated land.

The late Joan Carden suggested that William
Cardon was brought from Normandy by de Mandeville, so the French origin for the
name, claimed by various books, may have some foundation. But he equally well might have been on the
land before the conquest.

French
origin of the name

Cardon means thistle in French. It is possible that Geoffrey de Mandeville
distinguished himself from other knights when fully disguised in armour, by
wearing a thistle on his helmet. This
sort of thing was very common, the most famous example being the
Plantagenets. Geoffrey, Count of Anjou (1113–1151), father of
Henry II, often wore in his hat a sprig of broom, planta genista. De Mandeville’s retainers may have been known
by the name Cardon accordingly.

Companions of the Conqueror.

It is believed
that in 1066 William the Conqueror set sail for England from Dives-sur-Mer near
Caen in Normandy. In the church there is
a plaque, occupying an area of over 200 square feet, listing the supposed
companions of the conqueror. It was
erected in 1862. The list was drawn up
by the French Society of Archaeology, with the approval of the Bishop of Bayeux
and others. There are about 500 names
including Geoffroi de Mandeville and Guillaume Cardon.

Most such lists
are rather suspect but the inclusion of de Mandeville and Carden in this list
is significant.

Modern Cardins in France

Many Cardens in
England and USA spell their name Cardin, which is believed to be a variant of
the original Carden name. The question
is often raised as to whether there is any connection with the famous Pierre
Cardin brand name.

In 2004 Christian
Cardin of Gravelines, France, submitted a sample for DNA analysis. The result did not show anything in common
with Cardens belonging to either the Cheshire or East Kent branches of the
family. It would have been remarkable
and truly exciting if it had done so, and the failure to match our English
haplotypes proves little.

Christian Cardin wrote:

About
my family name and ancestors, what I know is that the roots of my family is
from Normandy, specially on the west coast of the Cotentin (at least until the
16th century, corresponding of the period during which I found documentation).

Some years ago, I tried to know by telephone number (by statistics) what was the
repartition of the Cardin name in France. When you report the number of the
Cardin family name on a French map, you see that this name is current in three
areas as follows:
in Normandy on the west coast of the Cotentin (where I come from) around
the town of Coutances (about 70 kilometers in the south of Cherbourg); in north
Brittany around the town of St Brieuc; and in south Brittany around the town of
Nantes.

It is amazing and strange to remark that we find these three groups on the west
coast of France where it is believed that the Norman and Anglo-Saxon invaders
came in the old time. It is why until now I think that the Cardin name was from
Anglo-Norman origin (may be from Cari-den, which could mean Cari, a Viking
name, the strong) and had a similar origin with the Carden name in England
and not with a Germanic word (Richard : Ric Hard which means the strong King)
as it is related in the traditional French genealogy books.